1 66 MY GARDEN. 



I went to a large manufacturer, but could not agree upon a reasonable 

 price. On a sudden the vendor said, " I beg your pardon, sir, but 

 what possibly can be your object in wanting to buy so many crinolines ? " 

 " To cover my fruit-trees," was the reply. Whereupon the dismay of 

 the manufacturer was great, as he declared that their use for such an 

 object would cast a lasting ridicule upon the article, and injure its sale. 



Many of the quince-worked pears I have planted in pots. Citron de 

 Cannes, Doyenne d'te, Josephine de Malines, and the Chaumontel 

 I have successfully cultivated in this way in the orchard-house. Those 

 allowed to ripen in the house are generally very inferior in flavour 

 to those grown out of doors ; but if they are allowed to set their fruit 

 in the house, and the trees removed out of doors about the 1st of 

 June, a crop is secured, and their excellence is maintained. 



Pot pear-trees require great care in watering, and a supply of liquid 

 manure at the times when the flower sets, when the pear first swells, 

 when the pips form, and when the fruit is perfecting itself. It is 

 also advantageous at these critical times to give manure water 

 twice a week. 



If the pyramid is in thorough condition, the young fruit will bear 

 moderate, but not excessive, frost in spring. The trees bore excessive 

 drought and heat very badly in 1870, and numbers of pears ceased to 

 grow therefrom. Perhaps the crop is most certainly secured by keeping 

 the trees in a perfect balance of leaf, flower, and fruit, by judicious 

 moderate root- pruning or manuring. I have considered it desirable to 

 give to all my trees some phosphate of lime by throwing bone-dust 

 over the ground, and I apply a little stable manure to the surface 

 every year. 



Mr. Thompson advised me to grow pear-trees on quince stocks as 

 espaliers, as he thought they would pay well. I never tried the 

 experiment, though the dictum of so great an authority deserves full 

 consideration. 



The pear should be gathered when it comes easily from the tree. 

 It then should be placed in the fruit-room, each pear separate from the 

 others, and care must be taken to watch the fruit as it ripens. When 



